New Beginnings
by reidnparker
Summary: When Dean Winchester's father goes missing, he knows that he has to track down his brother. Thankfully, he finds him... But, that's not all he finds. A tale of the unexpected, the supernatural... And family.
1. Chapter 1 – Something Bad

**_Chapter 1. – Something Bad_**

 ** _\- fourteen years ago -_**

"No, no... I don't want it... _NO!_ " Sam's shouts could be heard throughout the dark household of the Mayfields, and Mrs Mayfield comes rushing in at the racket.

"Sam! Wake up, it's just a-" before she finishs her sentence, young Sam bolts upright in his bed, his face stained with tears and sweat.

She tells him to go back to sleep, and that 'it's all going to be alright, honey.' But, when she leaves Mr. Mayfield has the common conversation of getting Sam to see a therapist, or maybe putting him back into care.

Aliyah peeps her head out from under the covers, used to being awoken by Sam's tossing and turning in the night.

"It was only a dream, Sam." She whispers, watching as he angrily wipes the tears away from his eyes.

But it wasn't.

It was memories of something that happened that night.

That night that their mother died.

 ** _\- present day -_**

"Sam, when I say duck, I mean duck!" Al raises her voice at her brother, attempting to punch him in the arm, but he flinches away.

"It's a little hard to do that, when a freaking witch is trying her mojo on me!" He snaps back, throwing their weapons into the trunk of their car, before slamming it shut again.

Rolling her eyes at him, they both get into the car and Sam drives away in silence. They drive to the motel in silence too – where they'll stay the night before searching for another job to go to.

All the while of course they're hunting for who – or rather, what – had killed their mom, but along the way they try and kill as many other monsters as they can.

As soon as they're back Sam wanders off inside on his own. It's dusk now, so he slumps down on his bed, not bothering to change his dirty clothes or wash away his fresh cuts. He soon finds that his eyes are closing, and it isn't long before he falls into a light sleep. Aliyah usually does the opposite of whatever her brother is doing, so she sits on her bed and opens up her laptop – Time for research.

The clock strikes six pm, and almost like clockwork Sam starts to writhe around on his mattress. "No... Leave her alone! Don't, I can't... I'm not going to... NO!" Sam's shouting grows louder, and someone thumps on the wall next door.

"Sam.. Wake up," Al jumps off of her bed, and carefully steps over to to where Sam is still in distress, having some kind of night terror. She shakes him gently at first, dodging his fists as he unconsciously lashes out at her.

"Sam Winchester!" Finally her loud tone snaps him out of his trance, and his eyes pry open.

"I'm going to shower," he mumbles, wearily standing up and walking away from her.

Sighing, Al moves back into her position of research. Not much has come up yet – there's been a few mysterious deaths in Virginia, and a couple of mutilations in the forests of Iowa. But, nothing major just yet. Absentmindedly occupied by her computer, and her thoughts of Sam's dreaming, eventually Aliyah finds herself falling into a light slumber too.

By the next morning she's already decided on a case, and since she's awake before her brother, Al decides to wake Sam up with breakfast and a information of this new case.

"Two deaths, both in locked rooms with no forced entry..." Sam comments, with a mouth full of bagel.

"Do you have to be like that?" Aliyah rolls her eyes, snatching away her laptop before he had the chance to spill any crumbs on it.

Sam flips her off, adding with this gesture his signature – what Al liked to describe as his 'bitchface', before he goes back to finishing up his food.

Pretty soon the pair are on the road again, bickering over music choices and how Sam starts snoring whilst he has a nap... Three and a half hours later and they finally arrive at their next shabby motel room. There was just enough time before dusk, to go and check out a few of the crime scenes – posing as young federal trainees. It was surprising how a cop would let you into these houses with some fake credentials and a confident attitude- fairly worrying actually.

"Alright, well the EMF is having a field day here," Sam keeps his voice low, as he scans the room where the first victim had died.

"Power lines, dumbass." Aliyah signals to the window beside her, where many wires passed by the glass.

Sam narrows his eyes at her, and his sister smiles back sarcastically. After a not very successful crime scene search, it's back to the motel room where Al starts to look into some history, and Sam then heads to the library to pick up some local books and records.

"Get food whilst your out, please and thanks!" Aliyah calls out to him, just before he closes the door.

As usual, Sam is taking his sweet time arriving back, and when he finally does stumble back into the motel room, it isn't in his usual state.

"Ew, you're gonna bleed all over my sandwich!" Al proceeds to toss a pen at her brother, whilst he just kind of stares at her in confusion – before the realisation that he's actually having a nosebleed seems to eventually dawn upon him.

Aliyah jumps down from her chair, and grabs her food from his hands, and then whilst giving it a thorough inspection, she wandered back over to the table where she's completing her research.

"Whilst you were out doing probably nothing, I found some stuff on a few people who died here, like as in bad deaths that might make a pissed off ghost," Aliyah explains, whilst Sam comes back to her side, after retrieving some tissues.

"Such as?" He asks, pulling up a chair in order to sit beside her.

"Here, Amy Whittle... She lived with her husband who incidentally disappeared the night after her murder... And the two recent victims?"

"Both men..."

"And both suspicious divorcees, I did some digging." Aliyah clicks on another tab, where she may or may not have hacked into a few police files of home disturbances and spousal dispute files. Sam begins to pour over his own research, and they both compare notes as they finish eating.

"Is it too early to assume that we can just salt and burn her, and then we're done here?" Aliyah questions hopefully, watching as Sam takes place on his bed.

"I say lets talk to her only surviving relative – a.k.a her daughter, Lana." He replies, and Aliyah slightly hesitantly agrees.

"Sam, are you sure you're okay?" Al frowns, as she's in the drivers seat next to her brother – who was currently acting out a migraine or something.

"Jesus Christ, it's just a headache! Just drive," he groans (both siblings never like to be fussed over), so she did as he suggested, ignoring his stubborn reply.

When they arrive back at the motel – after talking to the daughter and confirming what they had already thought about the story themselves – Sam goes on his laptop for more researching, as well as to try and take his mind off of the nauseous feeling growing inside of him... This idea didn't last long though, as he literally falls asleep sitting up on his bed.

Aliyah chuckles at him, deciding to find out how easy it would be to get to Ms. Whittle's grave by tomorrow at the latest. It wasn't usually this easy in a case, but this seems to be a simple vengeful spirit gig, so she isn't really complaining.

As soon as Sam wakes up – he politely declines the dinner that Aliyah had gone out of her way to buy for him... and it wasn't even like she bought him something unhealthy.

"Sam?" She mumbles, chewing on the straw from her milkshake.

"Yes?" He answers a few seconds later, propping his chin up on his hand, whilst sitting at the table in the mini kitchen area.

"Since when do you catch colds?" Aliyah questions suspiciously, as Sam jerks himself awake with a sneeze.

"I don't," he rolls his eyes, "it's just dusty in here."

"All the motels we stay at are dusty... I'd be worried if they weren't," Al admits, sighing quietly in frustration.

"Whatever," Sam yawns, and he continues to drift off whilst sitting in his chair.

Aliyah face palms herself at how unhelpful her brother was being, so she then promptly decides to go out and get some air. She chooses to sit outside on the small decking area, scanning the few run down cars that are parked outside. The only decent looking car was a newly parked black Chevy Impala.

After a few minutes of life contemplation, she leaves to go and buy some medical supplies, hoping that Sam wouldn't be dramatically worse by the time she got back. Thankfully, he was still in the same place, but on his laptop this time.

"Here, take these." Al throws a packet of Aspirin his way, which Sam catches one handed.

"Good to see your hand to eye coordination is still on form," she jokes, sitting opposite him. Sam neglects giving her a reply, not tearing his gaze away from the screen whilst he takes his pills.

"Are you watching porn?" Al scoffs, clicking her fingers in front of his face when he continues to ignore her.

"I'm researching something," he speaks quietly, and Al knows that he's most likely looking into all of the crazy theories he has about the night that their Mom had died. Choosing to ignore him for the while, she retreads back to her own bed for now.

Once again, it didn't take long for Sam to fall asleep at the table, and after an hour of listening to her elder brother snore, Al decides to go and remove the laptop from underneath his face... It wouldn't be a good combination if Sam gets some kind of laptop heat burns on his face, now would it.

After she's carefully slices the machine out from underneath his cheek, Al notices just how dangerously hot Sam's skin actually feels... I mean, could the laptop really have heated him up that much? Having an idea she quickly hurries to the front desk of their motel, requesting a thermometer with a few lies about why she needs it.

When she comes back into the room Sam on sitting up in his chair again, looking slightly confused as to his whereabouts. Without saying anything Aliyah quickly places the thermometer into his mouth, before he has time to process or ask any questions about it.

"What're you doing?" Sam mumbles, with the thermometer still between his lips.

"Checking if you have a – _Jesus Christ!_ " Al exclaims – loudly enough to make Sam flinch in surprise – removing the old fashioned temperature measurement tool from his mouth, to reveal some worrying results.

"Why would I have a Jesus Christ?" Sam remarks sarcastically, a smirk playing upon his lips, and Al smacks the back of his head.

"Apparently, Aspirin doesn't work on you," she exhales, showing Sam the reading on the small screen; it reads 102.5, a.k.a a fever temperature.

"Awesome," he coughs, standing up from his chair.

"Well, looks like I'm going grave robbing on my lonesome tonight!" Aliyah announces, placing the thermometer in the sink to wash it.

"No way, I'm coming with you." Sam snaps sternly, walking up to his sister.

Sam is quite a lot taller than Aliyah, so if there ever was a heated argument, Sam would always without a fail stand so close to her in attempt to tower over Aliyah and make her feel 'intimidated.'

"Okay, just 'cause I'm not in the mood to argue, plus you're way too close to me for my liking right now..." She takes a few steps backwards, before abruptly carrying on her statement, "but, after tonight we're not going on a job until you're better, and if you try and protest so help me or I will handcuff you to a piece of furniture, Winchester." Aliyah steps forwards again in order to poke his chest, before she turns away from him.

"I'm fine, I fell asleep on the laptop... The laptop was hot!" Sam makes dramatic hand gestures and uses emphasis on certain words, then throwing his hands up in protest, but Aliyah wasn't listening.

"Oh my god, will you quit being so stubborn for _one_ minute?!" She raises her voice, storming out of the door before Sam can think of some other stupid lie to tell her.

Aliyah starts walking so fast that she doesn't really look where she's going, and she also ignores the stranger that she bumps into along the way. Not looking back to apologise, she soon finds herself halfway into town.

She spends the rest of the evening in town, just sitting in a cafe kind of people watching. Okay, it may seem kind of selfish – since her brother is sitting in a motel room nearby maybe or maybe not close to dying... But, sometimes they have a complicated sibling rivalry kind of relationship, you know?

Suddenly remembering the job that her and Sam were still working, Aliyah quickly hurries back to the dingy motel, as the skies begin to grow dark.

"Nice of you to return, the car is all ready to go." Sam grumbles, as Al walks in through the door – which is thankfully still attached to its hinges, after a certain somebody slammed it pretty hard a few hours earlier.

She doesn't really bother to glance at him, so they both head out to their car separately. "Nice to see that the laptop heat is still affecting you," Aliyah mumbles sarcastically, noticing how Sam isn't wearing a jacket even though it's practically close to freezing outside.

"Nice to see that you're still acting like a sarcastic asshole," Sam smiles back, just before they reach the graveyard.

"Shut up," she counteracts, as the pair exit the car to retrieve some salt guns, salt and what was needed to light a fire.

The procedure seems to all be going pretty well... until the spirit of Amy obviously realises what's going on – and whilst Aliyah is just about done with digging the last of the dirt up, her salt gun flies out from under her arm.

"Every god damn time," Aliyah sighs loudly, quickly hoisting herself out of the grave to where Sam was now being flung against a nearby tree.

Aliyah grabs Sam's gun from the floor where he was previously standing (she had made him stop digging after he started breathing funny, although he was still 'fine').

"Sam, do it!" Al shouts as loud as she can, over the sounds of the spirit screeching almost deafeningly – as she continues to shoot at the vengeful spirit.

Sam pulls himself from the ground as fast as he can, and he swoops the matches up into his hand. "Three o'clock, Sam!" His sister calls out, so that Sam can duck and she can shoot.

Finally he pours the gasoline over the body, salts it and then strikes the match alight – dropping it into the grave. Sam sirs down on the ground for a few seconds, feeling strangely out of breath.

"You okay?" Al asks, a hint of concern carrying along with her tone, as she offers him a hand to help him up.

"Perfectly fine, thanks." Sam quite rudely declines her offer, getting himself up.

"Alright, let's go then.. _Mr. Perfectly Fine._ " Aliyah rolls her eyes at Sam, (something she does quite a lot to her brother) withdrawing her hand, and then they both head back to the car.


	2. Chapter 2 – 'Who the hell are you'

This time it takes Sam quite a while to fall asleep tonight, whereas Aliyah falls straight into a deep sleep. When Sam finally drifts off, he once again finds himself trapped inside his dreaded dream world.

The next morning Sam awakes to find himself on the floor wrapped in his bed sheets, feeling like someone had set his body temperature on fire. He groans, before pulling himself up, checking his watch to reveal that the time reads only four am.

Aliyah lies as still as she can – just like she used to in the days that Sam would wake up from his nightmares back at their foster family's homes.

"It was just a dream, Sam." She whispers, listening as he heads into the bathroom to wash his face with cold water.

Finally the light outside shines through the worn out curtains of the motel, but thanks to Sam neither of the siblings had endured a good nights sleep. Sam is currently snoring (way too loudly) whilst lying upside down in his bed, and naturally Aliyah would usually throw something at him, but today she decides against that.

Instead of going out for breakfast this time she just opts for eating some snacks in their motel room– because although Aliyah will probably never admit it to any living soul... She worries about her brother, a lot.

Sam is still sleeping by the time Al has gotten showered we well as dressed, and he almost frightens the life out of her (kind of hard to do considering their daily job occupation) when he practically falls out of his bed, whilst incoherently mumbling away to himself.

When he groggily sits up, Aliyah notices how bloody his face keep, and as her brother then proceeds to glance up in her direction, she points on her own face to where he has been bleeding on his own.

"It's fine," he practically slurs as if he was drunk, and then staggers off to the bathroom once again.

Aliyah feels like shouting at him that no, it wasn't freaking fine. But, instead she refrains from doing this, and waits for him to exit the shower before she says something to him.

"Sam, I think you need to see a – "

"I just need some fresh air," he interrupts her, not letting her finish. Instead of listening to what she has to say, he then walks straight out of the front door.

Aliyah contemplates following her brother, but comes to the conclusion that he knows what's best for him at the end of the day, so she simply lets him go... with a slight feeling of regret growing in her gut right now.

Trying to take her mind off of things, Al plugs in her headphones and starts to play some music. Although she is soon interrupted once again, by whom she assumes is Sam coming back from his little tantrum... But, that's not the case.

Having heard the door swing open, she quickly pauses her music, and then turns to face the door... Where some stranger is holding up an unconscious, and dangerously pale looking Sam.

"Who the hell are you?!" Aliyah shouts at the leather jacketed stranger, as she reaches for her gun that was placed next to her on the table.

"I don't think names are really an issue right now, sweetheart... Your boyfriend here has just passed out, so a little help?" The guy replies, causing Al to scoff loudly.

"My _boyfriend?!_ Okay, I don't know exactly who you think you are.. But, just drop my brother and go." She demands, pointing the gun steadily at the cocky stranger's head.

"Your brother?! Alright, listen... Whatever kinky shit you've got going on here, it ain't none of my business.. But, for real your friend here has got a concussion, so I need some water to wake him up, and we need to keep him awake."

"If you call him _'my friend'_ again, I'll shoot you, and you'll be dead before you hit the ground." Aliyah speaks coldly, her eyes flitting to Sam as he groans slightly and his eyes flicker open.

Sam manages to use the last of his strength to tear away from the stranger, which unfortunately leads to Aliyah being temporarily distracted – therefore giving the stranger enough time to take his own gun out.

"Put it down."

"How about you put it down first?" Even his damn smile is cocky.

"I asked first."

"And I asked second, honey." He clicks his tongue, his head leaning slightly towards his left.

Aliyah is currently pretty close to shooting this guy, but Sam quickly clears his throat loud enough to distract her from pulling the trigger.

"Can we just talk about this? No guns... Please?" Sam asks the both of them, and reluctantly they both seem to agree.

"Slowly does it," the guy speaks, as both him and Aliyah lower and disarm their weapons. Aliyah now quickly guides Sam to a chair, and then grabs him a wet cloth for the small cut on his head, where he must've fallen outside.

"Okay... You first, who the hell are you?" Aliyah spins around on her heels to face the unidentified and unwanted visitor, after she has handed Sam the cloth.

"I'm Sam's brother."

" _Right..._ I think I would know if we had a brother, but thanks for the laugh." Aliyah laughs dryly, but he isn't laughing with her.

"Dean Winchester... And I certainly don't have a sister, so who the hell are you?" He retaliates just as quick, his body language getting slightly defensive.

"Aliyah Winchester, sister to Sam Winchester... No Dean in the picture the last time we looked," she answers, turning back to check if Sam is alright.

"Sam went with our Mom when our parents split up, okay? And after Sam went into care it was practically impossible to find him," Dean begins to explain to her, but Aliyah still isn't quite convinced.

"Oh yeah? So where was his dad then, couldn't he come and save the day... Oh, and news flash.. I was born after our parents split up." Aliyah explains further, but likewise – Dean still isn't buying it.

"Listen, dad's missing, okay. That's why I started looking even harder.. He didn't want me finding you because he didn't want you in the life, and then when he went missing, so I had time to dig deeper, but it was like there was no records of you, so that's why I've taken so freakin' long to find you!" Dean seems to be directing all of his speech to Sam, as if Aliyah doesn't even exist right now.

"Sam?" Aliyah places a hand on her hip, facing her real brother for a true explanation that actually makes some kind of freakin' sense.

"It could be true.. I mean, our records went away after we ran from foster care when I turned eighteen, since we didn't want to be found, so if Dean went looking for me after that year then it would be almost impossible to find me –" he pauses for a few moments after a dizzy spell temporarily takes him over, "– and, he wouldn't have any idea about you, because Mom never even planned on telling Dad straight away, but then she died when you were like almost two years old."

Sam's explanation does have some sense to it, but how come Dean manages to find them today, and it was all a little to coincidental for Aliyah, considering that today is the day that Sam – who never gets sick, ever – would suddenly begin his ill health on the day that his so-called 'long lost brother' decides to show up.

"Well, I'll take it for now!" Dean shrugs, stepping closer to them both.

"Wait... How come you found us so easily now? Why did it take you so long if you always knew you had a brother, no matter what your dad said?" Aliyah continued to shoot question after question at Dean, stepping closer to Sam as she does so.

"Trust me, you don't know dad... And, I had my sources." He replies, obviously not planning to give them away anytime soon.

"Well, until we all submit to a DNA test I'm not believing you." Aliyah snaps, placing the back of her hand to Sam's forehead – that is currently burning up.

"Fine, 'cause me neither." Dean raises his eyebrows, accompanied with a sarcastic smile. Of course Aliyah then orders Dean to leave, but it seems that he has some important information to bear.

"Listen, a few times I've been watching Sam –" Dean ignores Aliyah's snaps of anger at him, and he just continues to talk – " I saw a shifty looking chick a couple of times, so either Sam here has the flu, or someone is really pissed at you guys, and she's getting revenge."

Aliyah pauses to think for a while, and it doesn't take long for her to remember the witch that they had killed a few days ago. Crap. Did she have friends or family that they didn't know about? I mean, she was a loner... No coven. They checked... Didn't they?

"Hex bags." Aliyah mutters to herself more than anyone else, as she rushes outside to ransack the car... A.k.a the first place that Sam was, after he started showing the early signs of sickness.

It takes barely any time for her to find the first bag, which is stuffed under the driver's seat. Retrieving her lighter from her pocket, she doesn't waste anytime in lighting it up. A few seconds later Dean comes hurrying outside, holding yet another one.

"You must've really pissed this witch off," he exclaims, lighting the bag that was in his hand.

"Yeah, well us hunters have a tendency to piss off the supernatural," Al grumbles in response, returning to the car to search for anymore.

Both Aliyah and Dean are stopped in their tracks, as they bear a loud crashing noise from inside the motel room. "Why did you leave him alone?!" Aliyah raises her voice at Dean, as they both tear back inside again.

"Get away from my bother, you bitch!" Were the words that leave both Al and Dean's mouths in unison, but they're too worried about Sam to even notice.

Whoever this witch was, she really does not want to give up on Sam, who was currently attempting to fight her off of him. The witch grabs him in a headlock, before anyone can get close enough to maim her.

"I'll kill him," she hisses, as Sam writhes around in her grip.

" _Please_ – you're in the body of a what, - thirty-thirty three year old? I mean, you don't even look that great for your age, and for starters you can barely even make a good hex bag, for Christ's sake!" Dean laughs rather obnoxiously, only causing the witch to tighten her grip around Sam's neck.

"Not helping, Dean." Aliyah whispers through gritted teeth, turning to glare at him.

"You killed my sister! You hunters think you're better than us all, and just because I'm not a fully talented witch yet, doesn't mean I don't know how to suffocate someone." She grins menacingly, as the colour is beginning to rapidly drain away from Sam's face.

"I hate the family feuds," Dean moans, rolling his eyes heavily.

Aliyah really feels like slapping Dean... But, after a while she can see that he is taunting the witch – trying to distract her, and catch her off guard. Although he knows that this is just making her more and more angry, and it looks as if this isn't helping Sam at all.. Eventually he reaches the ultimate remark about her sister, and low and behold – she throws Sam aside and lunges at Dean instead.

To Al's ultimate surprise, this leads to her going up in a cloud of white smoke, and Aliyah then spots the bottle that Dean had been holding in his pocket. A.k.a their left over bottle of the spell they used on her sister. Dean must've grabbed it from the trunk whilst he was looking for the hex bags earlier.

"You're welcome," Dean smiles, brushing himself down before taking a seat on the edge of Aliyah's bed.

A few moments later Sam proceeds to regain consciousness again, coughing violently due to his previous brush with death just a few seconds ago. This time Sam gladly accepts Al's hand to help him up, then he went and collapses onto his bed.

"Feeling any better, Sammy?" Dean asks him – rudely acting as if he has known Sam for his whole life, when they haven't seen each other for nineteen years.

"No –" Sam is then briefly interrupted by a sneeze, "– and it's _Sam._ "


	3. Chapter 3 – Remedies

It takes a while to get Dean out of their motel room, but he finally opts out and leaves when Sam starts looking a little like he may be about to to throw up. He says that he will call by in the morning, when 'everything has been worked out', whatever the hell that's supposed to mean.

"What are we going to do? I mean, does he expect us to just let him come along with us wherever we go?! Why isn't anything ever straight forward with us?" Aliyah sighs exasperatedly, running her hands through her mid-length hair.

"Because we're the Winchesters," Sam mumbles quietly, burying his head into his pillow.

"Touché," Al takes a seat on the edge of her bed, watching her brother.

"Are you okay though?" She asks him, reaching her foot across to poke his leg.

"I will be," he sniffles, proceeding to roll onto his back. They both smile wearily, and then Sam closes his eyes.

"Night, _Sammy._ " Aliyah mocks Dean's actions from earlier.

"Night, Al." Sam chuckles in response.

Sam's dreams are pretty bad tonight. It seems that the mixture of the pain from his fresh cuts and bruises, along with his after affects of the hexing sickness, and then the new addition to his family were screwing with his brain pretty heavily.

All he keeps seeing in his mind whilst he tosses and turns, are images of a young boy, and he is watching the boy through his own eyes. The boy is crying, and Sam's parents are both there. They seem to be arguing over something, and now the other boy picks Sam up, and carries him away from the shouting couple.

"It's alright, Sammy... I've got you," the boy whispers comfortingly, before Sam's eyes flash open again, and this time they reveal a bright light shining through the grimy motel window.

He winces at the brightness, turning over in his bed in order to face the other way. Aliyah's bed is currently empty, and soon two familiar voices come into earshot.

"You can't just tag along with us, I don't care if you found my birth records and suddenly believe me! That doesn't change the fact that I've never met you until yesterday!" Aliyah's loud voice echoes around the room.

"Yeah, well excuse me for caring about my little brother! He almost died yesterday, and it seems like you've barely even batted a freakin' eyelash!" There goes Dean snapping back at her.

Why does this all seem so familiar to Sam?

He steadily pulls himself out of bed, and then follows the source of the noises, which lead him into the other area of their room. "Morning," his voice comes out slightly raspier than he had expected it too.

"Wow, you look like crap." Aliyah and Dean speak in sync once again, causing them to immediately glare at each other.

"Gee, thanks." Sam raises his eyebrows in slight offence to their comments, and then he turns back away from them again. Aliyah takes this as her chance to end the discussion with Dean, and she follows Sam to the bathroom door.

She shoots him a kind of 'you okay?' look, and Sam simply shrugs in response.

"We're heading out – according to Dean – He told me a load of weird stuff about how his dad gave him sealed information on the thing that killed Mom," Aliyah explains in a hushed voice.

"We have to give him a chance... Not for him, for Mom... Okay?" Sam has this way of making Aliyah agree to things, and the fact that he looks all sad and sick right now isn't exactly helping her to stay stubborn.

"Ugh, fine... But, from now on you can do the talking to him, he's so cocky I can't even deal with it."

 _"Fine,"_ Sam agrees also, giving her a half smile.

So, now Aliyah is driving, and Sam is riding shotgun next to her... Whilst they follow Dean ahead of them. He says he's taking them to the first town that their Dad was last seen in. Of course Dean himself had looked, but after three weeks of 'jack squat', as he described it – he knew what he had to do.

As soon as Dean had mentioned this part about their mother's death, Sam had felt a slight shooting pain in the side of his head, as a memory flickered in and out of his vision. In his dreams, one of the things that he usually saw before he woke up... Was a pair of shining yellow eyes.

"Sam... Sam... _SAM!_ " Aliyah tries to poke him, whilst keeping her eyes on the road at the same time. He was snoring again (mainly because he's sick), and he won't stop, or wake up for that matter.

Aliyah quickly scans the car for something to wake Sam up, like the five cups of coffee – plus the aspirin he had consumed earlier wasn't enough.

A small smirk begins to play upon her face, as she spots a plastic spoon sitting in the little cup holder in the car. She carefully reaches out for it, and gently places it inside Sam's mouth. Before finishing the final part of her plan, she quickly grabs her phone, and takes a snap of him.

Then, she cranks up the volume on the car's radio, causing Sam to jump out of his nap with a loud gasp. When he notices the unidentified object that has appeared inside his mouth, he struggles to spit it out, before turning to face his younger sibling.

"I hate you," he rubs his eyes, hitting the radio's off button with his knuckles.

"Feeling's mutual," she jokes back, turning the radio back on again – but lowering the volume afterwards.

After about forty more minutes of driving – they've only been on the road an hour prior to this time change, much to Sam's annoyance after Aliyah abruptly woke him from his nap – Dean pulls in at a gas station, so obviously Al has to follow.

Sam buys yet another cup of coffee, which is only making him irritable rather than feel better, so Aliyah is seriously considering asking him to ride with Dean for a while instead.

Back on the road again, and Sam is busy annoying the hell out of his sister – something that happened quite a lot when the sibling are in the car together. A few minutes later Sam's phone begins to ring, and it's Dean – they had added each other's numbers before they left, as it's not exactly easy to communicate whilst driving otherwise.

"Hello?" Sam clears his throat in order to speak, before pressing the speaker button on his phone.

"Listen, slight change of plans... A friend of my dad's, his daughter is in trouble and needs our help, we owe her big time.. So, whether you wanna come along or not I could use the extra hands... It's along the way, about another hour or so from here." Dean tells the pair, and Aliyah rolls her eyes at this news.

"Sure, we'll come along." Sam replies, and Aliyah isn't sure if it was because she's been so harsh towards Dean, or because Sam's just pissed at her for being kind of rude to him over the past few days.

"Thanks, seeya soon." Dean answers back, and then he hung up.

Sam flips his phone shut in one swift motion, and then they both stay silent for the rest of the car ride to Dean's family friend's. Dean drives straight to the girl's house, and Sam and Aliyah follow behind him, all the way to the front door – whilst he knocks on it.

A girl around Dean's age opens the door, and they both share a hug as a greeting. "Rhi, this is Sam, and this is Aliyah... Long story, not got much time for it right now." Dean nods to each one of his siblings who are awkwardly standing behind him, and then Rhi steps aside to let them all in.

She leads them all into the living room, where everyone then sits down. Aliyah has noticed Sam looking sicker by the second.. and apparently she isn't the only one, as when she glances over at him, Dean's eyes are glued to him too.

Aliyah isn't exactly sure if Dean's extra concern is caring, or just patronisingly annoying to her. So, for now she chooses to concentrate on Dean's friend's story instead. The girl tells them all of how her dad had gone on what seemed to be a routine job, about two weeks ago... But, after one week he called saying not to come after him (she was working a small, more local job of her own at the time), and now that it's been two weeks it's pretty obvious that there's something wrong.

"Excuse me, uh, can I use your bathroom, please? Sam suddenly interrupts her, mid-story telling.

"Sure, second door on the left, upstairs." She points in the general direction, but Sam has already gotten up to hurry away from them all.

"Is he... Alright?" Rhi questions curiously, a look of concern evident on her face now also.

"Witch stuff, he'll be fine." Al replies quickly, wondering whether or not to go after him.

Rhi seems as if she understands, so she goes back to telling the last part of her story. She tells them that she's worried that he has finally found the vampire leader who killed her mother a long time ago, and was beginning to fear that her father has also fallen to being his prey – since it seems to be the only reasonable explanation as to why he didn't want her tagging along with him, considering that they usually hunt together.

"Do you know where he was working the job?" Dean wonders, glancing at the staircase Sam has just stumbled upwards.

"Somewhere near Iowa... It's the last place I could track his phone to, and he's pretty sneaky about stuff sometimes, so naturally I couldn't pinpoint his exact location." She answers his question.

"Alright, I'll get right on it." He smiles, standing up from the sofa.

"You? What happened to 'we' and the whole 'I need extra hands' crap?" Aliyah questions him, standing up to reveal that actually, they are both about the same height – Dean looks to be about six inches taller than her, but he's wearing a pair of his combat boots right now, whereas Aliyah is only wearing a pair rundown looking Converse... So, overall there is only approximately four inches between them both.

"Jeez, fine... Have you ever dealt with vamps before?" Dean smirks at her, and she scoffs a little in response.

"Yes, thank you. I can most certainly handle myself with them."

"Well, what about Sammy – what about, Sam?" Dean quickly corrects himself, almost as if he's afraid of getting another snapping at from Aliyah.

"He'll be fine," she shrugs, starting to make her way out of the living room area.

"Yeah? Well, I'm not so sure about that..." Rhi adds in, and then they all turn towards the stairs, where Sam is now leaning against the bannister for support.

"Whatever that witch did.. I don't think you guys got rid of it fully," Sam croaks, before physically dropping to the floor unconscious... Again.

 _"Shit,"_ Aliyah mutters to herself, as they all instinctively rush to his side.

"Listen, you guys go... I'll catch up with you. I know the best remedies for all kinds of crap that these monsters send our way, just write me down the details on how it all happened, and Sam should be back to normal within a few days." Rhi tells them both, as Aliyah and Dean both struggle to get Sam to his feet again.

Due to their slight delay, they opt for spending a little more time at Rhi's house, explaining to her all about what had been happening to Sam for the past few days. She reassures them that what she was going to give Sam will work, and for them not to worry.

So, after saying their temporary goodbyes to each other, Aliyah and Dean head off, leaving Sam sleeping on the sofa, and Rhi in her kitchen cooking up some kind of miraculous remedy for their brother.

"Just to clarify, don't annoy me or I will shoot you."

"Right back at ya," Dean replies, keeping his eyes on the road ahead.

He had insisted that they take his car, although Aliyah secretly didn't mind, because it was a really nice car. The journey is quite far, and the estranged siblings sit in silence for the whole way – minus the sound of Dean's cassette tapes playing. Aliyah surprisingly doesn't mind his taste in music, whereas Sam would probably be begging them to turn it off if he was here right now.

When they finally arrive in the closest town to where Rhi had tracked her father's cell signal, they start by asking around if anyone has seen him. There had to be a vamps' nest here somewhere, so they set off to look for that too.

They end the day somewhat successfully, as an old couple who own a diner in the next town over said that they've seen who they were looking for, but this was about three days ago. So, for now Aliyah and Dean were to stay in a motel in that very town, so that they can hunt for the nest of vampires... Which in turn will hopefully lead them to finding Rhi's father.

The next morning is... Stressful, to say the least. Aliyah has discovered that Dean spends way too long in the shower for her liking, which leads to him using up practically all of the hot water.

Then they spend the next half an hour or so bickering about breakfast, because Aliyah finds something else to add to the list of things she despises about Dean – and, this time it's his eating mannerisms. Then to make matters even worse, Rhi calls Dean late morning time, to tell him that apparently Sam is rather insistent on coming out to meet them.

The certain remedy that he needs to fully get rid of his type of poisoning from the witch, is said to be quite strong. Rhi explains that he will need to drink the medicine for five days, three times a day – since witches spells and such are usually so strong, obviously the cures need to counteract them with the same amount of strength.

So, naturally about five minutes after Sam drinks the stuff, it will knock him out for about an hour... Well, that's what it's supposed to do. Rhi tells Dean that she's honestly never seen anyone resist its ability to knock you unconscious before, but it was kind of funny to watch him act drunk for about twenty minutes, until he finally fell asleep.

Rhi and Sam leave for Iowa just past lunch time, so weren't to arrive until about three that afternoon. When they arrive at the motel, Dean and Al are already out following a lead, which happens to be very successful.

They had spoken to one of Carl's (Rhi's Dad) close contacts, and he had said that the last he heard from him was when he found a small nest outside of the town they were staying in. Obviously, he managed to kill them all... So, this must've been where he got his information from to take him where he needed to go next. Now all they have to do is work out where exactly.

"This is turning into a wild goose chase," Dean sighs, pushing the car door shut behind him.

"You're telling me," Al mumbles back at him, glancing up at the dusky looking sky.

The pair wander into Dean's motel room, just a little shocked as to what they see in front of them. Sam jj sitting on one of their beds, explaining something to Rhi... In an extremely slurred tone.

"Are you drunk? Is he drunk?!" Dean turns to Rhi, before Sam can speak for himself.

"It's the remedy, I've never seen anything like it... Somehow his body is resisting it, almost."

"It's because I'm-" Sam hiccups, ", really strong!"

"Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that," Aliyah bites her lip to try and prevent any laughter from escaping, as she takes a seat next to her tipsy, older brother.

He frowns at her, and then pokes her nose. "Boop!" He giggles, before eventually collapsing onto the bed behind them.

"Yeah, and then _that_ happens." Rhi raises an eyebrow at Sam, who is now snoring with his mouth wide open.

\- **_((a/n these lines stand for the black outs that show during an episode, btw. either that, or time skips. ))_** -

"Great, now he's knocked out on my bed," Dean grumbles, before mumbling something about going to book another room, before promptly leaving.

"I'll take Sam's room then," Al shrugs, but she's secretly planning to stay with him for a little while longer.

Rhi smiles, and says that there's honestly nothing to worry about medically – although she is sort of worried about how Sam is reacting to her remedy, since nobody has actually ever acted in his particular way before – and then she leaves to go to her own room.

"God dammit, Sam." Aliyah mumbles quietly, feeling a little useless as she watches her older brother sleeping.

She waits for a couple of hours, in case the remedy stuff does anything else weird to him – well, weirder – or, to his dreams. But, he seems to be coping okay, so then she herself leaves him for the night, and makes her way to his room, after finding the key in one his jacket pockets.


	4. Chapter 4 – A new plan

Although Sam's sister doesn't think that Sam is dreaming, I mean of course he is. There are strange clips of Sam as a child again, with the same boy who called him 'Sammy' in his dream a few nights before. He dreams about the shining yellow eyes, and the dark red liquid filling the room. And, as per usual he wakes up the next morning feeling a little like he has a hangover from the night before.

He does however feel a lot better than he did a few days ago though, so he showers and eats a little something before going to find Aliyah. "Morning, Sunshine." She greets in a singsong voice, as Sam opens the door to where she had slept last night.

Sam silently judges her go-happy attitude, as he closes the door behind him, and enters the room. "Dean and Rhi are out researching... I said I'd wait for you," Al tells him, and then Sam glances over at her alarm clock; which reads almost two pm.

"Oh, and Rhi left this for you," Al makes a disgusted face, as she points to the two flasks of remedy on her bedside table. Sam groans quietly, before going over to pick the first one up.

As he began to drink it, he notice that Aliyah is 'casually' holding up her phone. "What're you doing?" Sam asks, immediately being overcome by a feeling of regret, as he stops drinking halfway through, now beginning to get a taste of the grotesque fluids from the flask that he was holding.

"Um... Nothing," she smiles 'innocently', lowering her phone more subtly away from Sam's face. He shakes her moment of weird behaviour off, and then quickly downs the rest of the liquid. About five minutes pass, and Aliyah feels disappointed about the fact that Sam isn't acting even semi-wasted yet. He just kind of sits there, staring at the wall in front of him.

"This stuff is soooo trippy," Sam finally blurts out, dragging his last two words a little longer than he should do. Aliyah shakes her head at her brother, laughing slightly as he waved his hand in front of his face, in slow motion.

"My hand is two hands," Sam widens his eyes, blinking a few times but really slowly.

"What the hell?" Aliyah snickers, beginning to film Sam once again. She knows that it's bad, but in her head she's wondering that if she ever needed to get the truth out of Sam about anything, times like this would make the perfect chance.

"I'm sleepy, but I don't wanna go to sleep.." Sam begins to sway a little, and he tries to use his hand to touch his forehead in attempt to steady himself, but instead he pokes himself in the eye.

"Fuck," he mumbles angrily, trying to stand up now.

"Oh no you don't!" Aliyah quickly jumps up after him, her reflexes being a lot faster than his right now, for obvious reasons.

"Let go of me! No... Leave her alone, I don't want it! _NO!_ " Sam begins to shout at Aliyah, as if he's experiencing one of his dreams... Only this time he is definitely awake.

"Sam, It's me, Aliyah... Calm down, okay?" She tries her best to reassure him, but even on his bad days Sam is quite a lot stronger than her, so he just about manages to overpower her, and pull away from her grip.

"Stop! Get away... From... Me..." Sam's voice starts to go from loud and agitated, to slow and drowsy.

And, unfortunately Aliyah doesn't catch him in time, so this time he passes out onto the floor instead, slightly catching the side of his head and body on the bed as he went.

"Jeez, that kid loves to receive concussions," Aliyah murmurs, before giving Sam a quick check over, to make sure that he isn't bleeding or anything. Thankfully he's fine... 'Fine' being used on loose terms, of course.

When Dean returns later with Rhi, it becomes evident that Sam needs to take some time off from hunting, until he had fully recovered from his illness. Dean and Aliyah take him to Bobby's, who is a good friend of John's. Obviously, due to the complicated circumstances with the Winchester family in the past, this is the first time in many years that Bobby will be seeing Sam again, and the first time ever that he'll meet Aliyah.

After some greetings and things are gotten out of the way, they all say their goodbyes and Keane Sam with Bobby – where he will remain until he is one hundred perfect healthy again.

In the meantime, Dean and Al will continue to help hunt for Rhi's dad.

The next day proves to be fairly successfully for them once again, as they finally manage to stake out one vamp – who turns out to be a newborn. Thankfully, the vamp gives up their location thanks to Dean's... _'Tactics.'_

Once they infiltrate the nest, they realise that it's only a small one that has just been formed by a few new vampires. So, unfortunately not much information ends up coming out of their raid.

After a week of barely any rest, and all work, Rhi gels the pair that she can do this by herself now. They have all gathered up enough information to help her find her dad, plus they are definitely getting closer and closer by the day.

At first Dean protests, and Aliyah even offers to carry on helping at least while Sam isn't here, but Rhi still declines their extra help. She says that she'll make sure to call often, to update them, and that as soon as she finds her dad she will make sure to tell them. Dean in return tells her not to hesitate to ask for help anytime in the near future, and although Rhi agrees, it's quite obvious that she wants to go alone now.

It certainly isn't uncommon for a hunter to want to complete their more 'personal' hunts alone – although the Winchesters' are a little different, considering that there's was something extremely evil involved.

Dean and Aliyah spend the rest of the afternoon – plus the next day – pouring over their Dad's journal. They are looking for any clues about what killed their Mom, such as coordinates or just little mentions of the monster that committed the murder.

Not long into the next morning and Dean receives a call from Bobby, saying that Sam is up and ready to hunt again. So, off they go to pick him up. Aliyah has obviously missed him, but mainly she just can't really stand being alone with Dean for much longer. Well, that's what she's going to tell Sam anyway.

When they arrive at Bobby's, they walk inside to find Sam, sitting on the sofa with a small smile on his face. Dean starts talking to Bobby, saying thanks to him and such, whilst Al takes this as her chance to talk to her brother alone.

"Hey," she sits down next to him, noticing how nice it was to see him looking healthy again – with some actual colour in his face, as opposed to the sickly pale shade it had been the past week or so.

"Any leads on Rhi's dad yet?" Sam asks her, which was just like him; he always has a caring side, but never talks about it.

"No, she's going to continue searching alone, so I guess it's us against whatever we're up against now."

Sam nods in agreement, to show that he understands her answer, before standing up as Dean and Bobby wander over. He thanks Bobby yet again for getting him back on his feet, and then asks Dean if he had been watching out for Aliyah – causing her to hit him on the back of his head (not as forcefully as usual though).

The trio choose to stick around for a little while, everyone having a drink... okay, Aliyah wasn't legal yet, but Bobby wasn't exactly a cop or anything – and even if he was he wouldn't worry about her being just two years below the drinking age.

Once again it was time for another motel stay, with Dean booking himself a separate room. Sam and Aliyah usually share a room with separate beds, as it was just easier for research and such. Sometimes Aliyah will buy her own room, like if they've been in an argument, or simply if Sam has been annoying her – like when he acts like a know-it-all-nerd during a case, or something.

"So, how was Bobby?" Al turns to face Sam, who knows currently lying upside down on his bed.

"He was fine, he told me some stuff about the couple of times he had met me when I was a kid." Sam replies, his voice getting muffled by the pillow.

"Like?" Aliyah acts curious, she knows that Sam wasn't with Dean for long – the three siblings have only been together for three weeks, and it's been two weeks since they stole a DNA testing kit, and then sent it to a lab whilst pretending to be FBI agents – but, she wants to know what happened during that time, because Dean certainly isn't going to open up to her anytime soon, and Sam probably doesn't remember much of it himself.

"Just that Dean was always looking out for me, like when Mom and Dad were arguing, and they took us to Bobby's for a weekend so that they could attempt to 'sort things out'." Sam uses air quotes to surround his last few words, now that he's sitting up again.

"Well, he sounds much nicer as a kid." Aliyah mumbles in response, sitting on her own bed.

"You don't have to be so harsh to him – I mean we are looking for our own dad – it's not like he tracked us down to look for his girlfriend or whatever." Sam replies a little defensively, but Aliyah just ignores him.

Switching off her bedside lamp, Aliyah climbs underneath her duvet, and rests her head onto the pillow. "Night, Sam." Al mutters, as she closes her eyes.

"Goodnight." He responds just as quietly.


End file.
